A thought on the death of Chuck Berry -- from a "public diplomacy" perspective

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Perhaps one of the best USA "public diplomacy" messages to the world in the past century was the music of Chuck Berry -- electrifying songs, way above politics, coming from a young New World country (whose 1776 Declaration of Independence  -- "all men are created equal" -- was drafted by a slave owner) -- a country that conceivably could not have have come into existence without the sweat and tears of enslaved African-Americans.

Do/should I -- a middle-class "white" guy, whose "ethnic/racial" origins are rather vague, although John Brown (the 19th century birth-designation of an abolitionist) is my real name, as was my father's -- feel guilty about this wound (slavery) in America's "democratic" heart?

I doubt my ever-doubting conscience will ever provide a "satisfactory" answer to this question.

All I do know is that history is merciless (ok--whatever that means) .